according to the History Channel Thanksgiving as a holiday was created by FDR

Obama meets with a different breed of Turkey

According to the History Channel (that I was watching tonight) Thanksgiving as an official National Holiday was started by FDR during the depression as a means to encourage holiday spending. By creating Thanksgiving a week earlier (there was a religious tradition of church going and fasting till the meal) he thought he could manipulate the economy... much like some of the poor moves Obama is making today. The present date of Thanksgiving was corrected by Republicans who rightly thought manipulating the economy was a Communist threat. The errors of playing with the economy was not felt till decades later when the "Great Society" fell apart in the 60's and 70's and gave us the poverty that we all grew up around.

The real lesson of Thanksgiving is don't fuck with things. ....oh but we had people who voted for "Change"

apparently there was a woman who used the Thanksgiving meal as a means to establish National unity during the civil war, but she was not successful.

The truth was that the Pilgrim story of Thanksgiving was manufactured from a letter found one hundred years ago.

The idea that the Pilgrims were eating Turkey, cranberry sauce and Pumpkin Pie is a myth. The Pilgrims didn't have any sugar. Most likely they were eating duck and fish... with possibly bread made of corn. They would not of eaten lobster because the Massachusetts lobsters were not tasty.

the largest myth according to this TV show was that the Indians were invited..... in fact they showed up because the Pilgrims were shooting their guns in celebration. Rather then get their ass kicked in by brutal savages the Pilgrims shared their meal.

most of the tradition associated with the holiday comes to us from the government... the armed forces who used it to boost morale during wars and obviously idiot liberals who used it to boost holiday spending.

it was just a TV show... and I don't believe everything I see on TV... but it was interesting.

I sure hope they rerun the show.

Thanksgiving is problematic for many on the left because it provides a positive view of American settlement and the interaction between European settlers and Native Americans. Which is why liberals will try to subvert the story of Thanksgiving by depicting the settlers negatively. This is almost universally common on television nowadays. And for those activists obsessed with what people eat, Thanksgiving with its obligatory heavy turkey dinner, is also a major target. So we get HRH Michelle Obama telling Americans what they can and can't eat for dinner. The difference is that Americans eat their own food. Unlike Michelle and her husband who eat at taxpayer expense.

The protests over the TSA have also failed to lead to a serious dialogue about what we should be doing to fight terrorism. Instead junk catchphrases and people stripping to their underwear while flying have turned media coverage of the situation into a series of running gags. Drudge forced media coverage of the backlash, but he steered it into freakshow areas. The media responded by running stories to pick up some of the traffic, but the stories they ran were more about the publicity stunts, while their above board coverage defended the Obama Administration and the TSA. It's a ridiculous situation when people can Tweet that they're going to fly in their underwear and get major news organizations to go and film them, that does nothing to address the problem. Instead it quickly leads to viewer fatigue and disinterest. And that means the policies will stay in place.

Too much of the backlash has focused on what people don't want, rather than what they do want. That has allowed the Obama Administration to frame it as a choice between security and privacy. When it's actually a choice between good security and bad security. That isn't entirely accidental. Too much of the coverage was led by sources who don't think that there even is such a thing as terrorism. Drudge and other blogs linked to content from 9/11 Truther Alex Jones and Prison Planet. This was Jones' most successful effort to embed himself among conservatives to date. For those such as Jones or Ron Paul, there is no terrorism. The whole thing is a government conspiracy. The way they fed the story, was the way it got told. And an opportunity to actually reform airline security was missed.

And so what should have been an upbeat time, a harvest festival and a reunion with friends and family, instead is tinted in haze. And that seems par for the course under Obama.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Is Rand Paul the Tea Party? Is he anti-Israel?

The New York Times raises the concern that Israel is becoming a partisan issue (in fact, it has been one for at least the last two years) in the US Congress, but frets that some Republicans may not be as supportive of Israel as we would like them to be. However, the Times only has one example: Rand Paul.

Scores of Tea Party-backed candidates are entering Congress, many of whom favor isolationist policies and are determined to cut American foreign aid, regardless of its destination. Rand Paul, the newly elected Tea Party-backed senator from Kentucky, bluntly told the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group, that they were going to disagree about the need for foreign aid and suggested that they move on to other topics, according to a person briefed on the meeting.

...

Yet the Tea Party-backed lawmakers remain something of a mystery. One of their brightest stars, Marco Rubio, went on a personal trip to Israel days after winning his Florida Senate race. But pro-Israel analysts point out that Mr. Paul once said he did not view an Iran with one nuclear bomb as a threat, though he has subsequently been more hawkish. Mr. Paul did not reply to a request for comment.

Yes, there may be an issue with Rand Paul. But the same issues exist with some Democrats as well (Keith Ellison?).

But is the Tea Party Rand Paul or is it Marco Rubio? And didn't most of the Tea Party candidates (Christine O'Donnell) supposedly lose anyway?

I'll put up with one Rand Paul if the rest of the Republicans are more pro-Israel than their Democratic colleagues. Marco Rubio? John Boehner? Eric Cantor? Mike Pence? Do I need to go on?

Read the whole thing.

I have a feeling this may just be the Times trying to head off a massive flood of Jewish votes to the Republicans in 2012. I'm inclined to wait and see how Paul behaves once the new Congress is in session.

UPDATE 2:05 PM

For a more positive view of Tea Party support for Israel, go here.

The Times also expresses concern about foreign aid to Israel, but the truth is that what Israel needs (and mostly gets) is military aid, much of which is paid for in cash or in kind, albeit generally at a discount.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Dutch government indirectly funding Electronic Intifadah

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal is investigating charges made by NGO Monitor that an aid organization supported by the Dutch government funds The Electronic Intifada, a virulently anti-Semitic website run by Ali Abunimah, a close confidant of Barack Obama.

The Dutch government has been funding the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation, a Dutch aid organization that finances the Electronic Intifada website that, NGO Monitor told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, is anti-Semitic and frequently compares Israeli policies with those of the Nazi regime.
NGO Monitor’s exposure of Dutch government funding for the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) prompted Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to say on Thursday, "I will look into the matter personally. If it appears that the government subsidized NGO ICCO does fund Electronic Intifada, it will have a serious problem with me.”
That government funding amounted to €124 million in 2008. The European Commission also funds ICCO.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, said, “This type of poisonous activity is precisely why European government funding of NGOs requires close oversight and full transparency."
“Based on our experience, we assume that the top Dutch government officials are completely unaware of the link between money given to ICCO for aid, and Electronic Intifada, a group whose rhetoric and activities undermine hopes for mutual understanding.”

Of course, the European Commission isn't going to look into why they're funding The Electronic Intifada. For the most part, it reflects the European elite's point of view. And some people are still arguing over whether comparing Israel to Nazis is sufficient to make EI anti-Semitic.

NGO Monitor told the Post that “EI executive director Ali Abunimah is a leader in delegitimization and demonization campaigns against Israel. In his travels and speaking engagements, facilitated by Electronic Intifada’s budget, he calls for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and routinely uses false apartheid rhetoric."
“Abunimah also equates Israel to Nazi Germany, comparing the Israeli press to Der Stürmer, referring to Gaza as a ‘ghetto for surplus non-Jews,’ and claiming that ‘Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.’” NGO Monitor criticized ICCO’s employment of Mieke Zagt, who is “the ICCO official directing the funding to EI,” a “former employee of Amnesty International’s Middle East division, and a vocal proponent of BDS herself.” BDS is the abbreviation for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.
Marinus Verweij, who became chairman of ICCO’s executive board earlier this month, wrote the Post on Thursday, “Electronic Intifada was launched in February 2001. It publishes news, commentary, analysis and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian situation... It has become an important source of information from the occupied Palestinian territories. Newspapers such as The Washington Post and the Financial Times have frequently used material from the Electronic Intifada.”
He continued, “The rights of Palestinian people to a decent way of living are central in the news brought by the EI. The EI reports frequently about the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the State of Israel. In no way is the EI anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.”

Under Dutch law, promoting anti-Semitism is a crime. Read the whole thing.
And for those wondering how I dragged President Hussein Obama into this, let's go back to 2008 when no one paid attention.

However, without losing a beat, an article has appeared on the ISM affiliated website Electronic Intifada (EI) by one of its co-founders, Ali Abunimah, in which Abumimah recounts his close past working relationship with Obama prior to the presidential campaign and how Abunimah believes Obama is merely giving lip service to the Jewish community to get elected, and that once in office he will work for the Palestinian cause. Abunimah lists himself and is mentioned in subsequent Obama articles in the mainstream press merely as a “Palestinian activist.” Abunimah insists that Obama will “come around” once elected.
But Ali Abunimah is more than just some “Palestinian activist” based in Chicago, the same location as Reverend Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is, in fact, one of the founders of the fiercely anti-Semitic ISM Arab group Al Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Coalition. Abunimah is a high level international leader of the ISM for the Arabs who travels extensively between Chicago, Europe and Ramallah.
Al Awda in Arabic means “The Return,” and the group not only calls for the complete destruction of Israel, even denying Israel’s current existence on its website and urging boycotts against not only Israelis, but American Jews and their businesses, but also calls for specifically supporting Arab terrorists in Iraq who kill US soldiers. Among its more than 130 chapters across the US and Canada, Al Awda’s New Jersey chapter is led by a young woman named Charlotte Kates who has called Israeli children killed by suicide bombers “fair game.” The ISM’s Al Awda openly supports terrorism as “legitimate resistance” in ISM revolutionary lingo.
Al Awda’s anti-Semitism has also linked to neo-Nazi groups in promoting the boycott and divestment from Israel on American campuses and in the US business community. It became so virulent that the group was booted by the UC Riverside campus administration from holding an international conference on that campus last year. Ali Abunimah, even today, is featured on the Al Awda website supporting terrorism against Israelis because he considers that “nonviolence is overrated.” In short, Obama saw no problem being lobbied in the past by someone who openly promotes terrorism and discrimination against Jewish-Americans.
...
But Obama’s association with the ISM through his church and lobbying in Chicago goes even deeper than just his past links to Al Awda and Ali Abunimah. His pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity Union Church of Christ in Chicago, are both equally involved with the ISM.
Since 2001, the ISM has been tasked by the PLO and other Arab irredentist groups with getting new generations of American college kids to consider democratic Israel as somehow a violator of human rights, all the while as the Palestinian Arabs who practice open anti-Semitism, honor killings, and the murders of their own people as well as Jews, as commendable practices. At their 2003 national organizing conference at Ohio State, ISM activists set out to deconstruct American narratives about Israel as a democratic state with firm support from secular radical Americans of Jewish ancestry. In one workshop set up to discuss ways to put a good face on suicide bombings, ISM activists spoke of new ways of reinterpreting the Bible so Israel did not belong to the Jews, but to the Palestinians.
In working with the Saudi funded Muslim Students Association in campuses across the US, the ISM has managed to cloud the image among American youth through disinformation and propaganda campaigns against Jews and Israel in order to try and make American students believe Israel is an apartheid state like South Africa was in the 1980s. At the same time, these same Palestinian groups like Al Awda insist the West Bank and Gaza must be Jew-free. Since this campaign has been largely successful in organizing anti-Israel attitudes on campuses all over America, and since Jewish organizations in America have been slow to react, the ISM moved on to another program to do the same thing only this time alienating US churches, particularly evangelical churches that have a long-term sense of Biblical support for the Jewish state. Thus was born the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theological Society created as part of the ISM to do in US churches what various ISM groups succeeded to do in American colleges.
At the same time, a foothold already existed to a small degree in the American black religious community such as is led by Louis Farrakhan.

Read the whole thing. If only more people had read it in April 2008....

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Armenian protest against Erdogan visit turns violent

-->

BEIRUT: Lebanese protesters of Armenian descent clashed with security forces Thursday during a demonstration against the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Members of the Armenian community in Lebanon organized the protest in Downtown Beirut to condemn Erdogan’s two-day visit, which started Wednesday. Erdogan had met with Lebanon’s three top officials and held visits to north and south Lebanon to inaugurate a school and a hospital.

via dailystar.com.lb

Armenian Orthodox Archbishop in Lebanon Kegham Khatcherian warned Lebanon and the Arab world against surrendering their leadership to foreign powers, saying “we are protesting in Martyrs Square not against an official visit or against an agreement, but to prove to this visitor [Erdogan] and to the entire world that we will not keep quiet about our inherited right.”

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

the words of Hariri: a man who is loyal to the murderers of his father. Hamlet in reverse

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri criticized on Friday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's will to continue negotiations with the Palestinians, saying that he "doesn't believe in peace."
In an interview with the Washington Post, Hariri said that in order to achieve a peace deal in the Arab-Israeli conflict, there must be strong leadership, something that Israel lacks.

	Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri
	Photo by: AP

via haaretz.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Fidel Castro: Uncle Sam Did it!

“Castro suggested that Washington was behind the mysterious destruction of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, which exploded and sank March 26 near the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea, killing all 46 crew members.” Indo-Asian News reported.

via msrb.wordpress.com

Yishai publicly slams Amsalem; MK appointed bodyguard

(image of Amsalem via davidvaaknin.blogspot.com)

(haaretz) Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that many Israeli women have been raped by migrant workers “but do not complain out of fear of being stigmatized as having contracted AIDS. (jpost.com)Yishai publicly slams Amsalem; MK appointed bodyguard   (By JONAH MANDEL)11/25/2010 21:49 Shas newspaper compares maverick lawmaker to Amalek; lawyer files complaint on threats, incitement to violence appearing in newspaper. In his first public statements on the maelstrom raging in Shas around MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem, party chairman Eli Yishai spent an hour on Thursday lashing out against the lawmaker. Amsalem is refusing to resign from the Knesset, despite the demands of the party’s spiritual leadership. RELATED: (Shas's Torah Sages publish letter slamming Amsalem)(Amsalem defies Ovadia Yosef’s order to quit Knesset)(jpost)“Nobody knew who he was a minute before he joined Shas,” Yishai said in an interview with Radio Kol Berama, which is affiliated with Shas.As for the possibility of Amsalem forming a new political party, Yishai said that “without a rabbinical council of leaders behind him, not even his wife would vote for him.” Amsalem was recently officially ousted from the party for expressing opinions such as that only a select minority should dedicate their lives to Torah scholarship, while the others should combine work with study; that non-Jews in Israel from the former Soviet Union with Jewish roots should be provided an easier way into converting to Judaism; that everyone should acquire the basic skills of mathematics and a foreign language, as provided in the state’s core curriculum; and that Sephardic Judaism should not bow its head before the Ashkenazi Lithuanian haredi leadership, which Amsalem says Shas is doing in its stances on matters of religion and education. Yishai also denied Amsalem’s assertion that he and others prevented the MK from meeting with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, in order to truthfully present his stances on Torah scholarship, employment, secular studies and conversions. “There wasn’t even one time that Amsalem wanted to meet with him and he couldn’t,” Yishai said, and added that recently “Yosef himself told his secretary he doesn’t want to meet with Amsalem, since he doesn’t listen to him and distorts his opinion.” Amsalem did not respond to Yishai’s interview. Earlier on Thursday, Shas newspaper Yom Leyom took the hostilities against Amsalem to new heights, comparing the lawmaker to Amalek. The front page of the weekly paper, as well as much of a supplement, were dedicated to Amsalem, the Shas Council of Torah Sages’s Monday decision, and elaborations on the “sinful ways” of the MK. “We demand of Mr. Haim Amsalem by the law of Torah to return his mandate to Shas,” the four-man body of senior Sephardi rabbis had written in their edict. “If he doesn’t do so, he is a thief in broad daylight... And we call on all of those who care about the Torah to keep far away from him and his strange and heretical opinions.” A wealth of quotes from the council’s decision condemning Amsalem, strongly worded by council head Yosef, were quoted and analyzed by various writers throughout the newspaper. But Ron Halevy, writing in the supplement, outdid all others in comparing Amsalem to a biblical-era foe whom Jews are ordered to eradicate. Writing about the “vast damage” that Amsalem’s “empty claims” have caused, Halevy wrote that “with arrogance and boastfulness, that man did the deed of Amalek who the Torah orders us to wipe out his memory, ‘who met thee by the way.’”The verse from Deuteronomy continues, “and smote the hindmost of thee.” The Knesset’s master of arms on Thursday ordered a bodyguard to accompany Amsalem at all times. Amsalem’s office said that “the incitement in wall posters and newspapers that are tantamount to wall posters is very severe. The comparison to Amalek has but one meaning that is clear and dangerous. This is certainly not the way of Torah.” Sources close to Amsalem were undecided on what they would do in response to the alleged incitement, but Idan Abuhav, a private attorney, decided on his own to both file a complaint with the Tel Aviv police about threats and incitement to violence, as well as write a letter to State Attorney Moshe Lador and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein asking that they order a criminal investigation into the implicit incitement to violence in the newspaper. “We secular folk cannot sit on the sidelines and observe how a haredi MK with an agenda of bringing the publics closer to one another, encouraging haredim to join the workforce and study core curriculum subjects, will be the victim of combined attack from all sides,” Abuhav told The Jerusalem Post. Abuhav stressed that his complaint was not against the council and its harshly worded decision, nor against Shas, and noted his good working relations with some of the party’s other members. This is only against the statements in Yom Leyom that contain violent incitement, he said. “We’ve already seen a public figure [prime minister Yitzhak Rabin] here murdered in part due to talk and an atmosphere created. In this case we should be all the more cautious, and not let every bully say what they want,” Abuhav said.

(mechon-mamre.org) The ambush by Amalek: Exodus 17:8-16

ח  וַיָּבֹא, עֲמָלֵק; וַיִּלָּחֶם עִם-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בִּרְפִידִם.	8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
ט  וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל-יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בְּחַר-לָנוּ אֲנָשִׁים, וְצֵא הִלָּחֵם בַּעֲמָלֵק; מָחָר, אָנֹכִי נִצָּב עַל-רֹאשׁ הַגִּבְעָה, וּמַטֵּה הָאֱלֹהִים, בְּיָדִי.	9 And Moses said unto Joshua: 'Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.'
י  וַיַּעַשׂ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמַר-לוֹ מֹשֶׁה--לְהִלָּחֵם, בַּעֲמָלֵק; וּמֹשֶׁה אַהֲרֹן וְחוּר, עָלוּ רֹאשׁ הַגִּבְעָה.	10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
יא  וְהָיָה, כַּאֲשֶׁר יָרִים מֹשֶׁה יָדוֹ--וְגָבַר יִשְׂרָאֵל; וְכַאֲשֶׁר יָנִיחַ יָדוֹ, וְגָבַר עֲמָלֵק.	11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
יב  וִידֵי מֹשֶׁה כְּבֵדִים, וַיִּקְחוּ-אֶבֶן וַיָּשִׂימוּ תַחְתָּיו וַיֵּשֶׁב עָלֶיהָ; וְאַהֲרֹן וְחוּר תָּמְכוּ בְיָדָיו, מִזֶּה אֶחָד וּמִזֶּה אֶחָד, וַיְהִי יָדָיו אֱמוּנָה, עַד-בֹּא הַשָּׁמֶשׁ.	12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
יג  וַיַּחֲלֹשׁ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֶת-עֲמָלֵק וְאֶת-עַמּוֹ, לְפִי-חָרֶב.  {פ}	13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. {P}
יד  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, כְּתֹב זֹאת זִכָּרוֹן בַּסֵּפֶר, וְשִׂים, בְּאָזְנֵי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ:  כִּי-מָחֹה אֶמְחֶה אֶת-זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק, מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם.	14 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Write this for a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.'
טו  וַיִּבֶן מֹשֶׁה, מִזְבֵּחַ; וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ, יְהוָה נִסִּי.	15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Adonai-nissi.
טז  וַיֹּאמֶר, כִּי-יָד עַל-כֵּס יָהּ, מִלְחָמָה לַיהוָה, בַּעֲמָלֵק--מִדֹּר, דֹּר.  {פ}	16 And he said: 'The hand upon the throne of the LORD: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.' {P}

At the time of the exodus, the Amalekites has moved out of their traditional transjordan territory into the Negev just west of Petra: Numbers 13:29

 Deuteronomy 25:17-19 Amalekites were a tribe had their origin within the Edomites, being descendants of Esau. They are often associated with Edom, living in the same area as Edom. Their traditional territory is transjordan between Babylon and the gulf of Aqaba.

Accusation of Amalek

When American author and Israel expert Jeffrey Goldberg recently asked a Netanyahu confidant to explain this fixation, he simply replied: "Think Amalek." This is the Jewish concept that forms a potentially disastrous parallel to the Islamic Haqqani school — a pair of mirror-image concepts that could spell war. In a biblical context, Amalek was a descendant of Esau who, with his tribal warriors from Canaan, launched a treacherous and unprovoked attack on the Hebrews as they were traveling to the Holy Land, Eretz Israel. In a broader sense, the term Amalek refers to the existential threat to Judaism at all times, under all circumstances and by all enemies. The Torah, Devarim 25, Fifth Book of Moses, reads: "Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt–how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear."

No Jewish generation is permitted to forget the conflict with Amalek, because Amalek embodies the intrinsically evil and destructive. Fighting Amalek is the duty of every devout Jew, a "mitzvah aseh" or commandment of action. According to some interpretations of ancient scripture, this mitzvah is more far-reaching, namely a commandment to eliminate the original enemies of the Jews.

Rabbis like Bibi Netanyahu's grandfather taught, and continue to teach today, that Jews are forced to combat the Amalekites, who are constantly, as Goldberg puts it, "reappearing in new forms": the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Spanish Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, Adolf Hitler's thugs, and now the Iranian hardliners ,who are vowing to destroy Israel, together with their president, Ahmadinejad. Those who, like Netanyahu, see Iran's nuclear program as Amalek's arsenal of weapons, are not just entitled, but are in fact obligated, to take preventive measures to destroy it. According to Jewish apocalyptic constructs, a Jewish state would cease to exist after a possible Iranian nuclear first strike. In other words, it is better to attack first in the case of doubt.

The notion that Iran, if it were to use nuclear weapons, would be acting suicidally and would see its government and hundreds of thousands of innocent people wiped out in the inevitable counter-attack is irrelevant. In fact, say the anti-Amalekites, Ahmadinejad literally yearns for such an inferno, because it would pave the way for the return of the Mahdi in the resulting end-time scenario. The Israelis reject as naïve the idea that Ahmadinejad is "merely" a populist and, with his nuclear program, could "only" be pursuing tactical goals like the regional strengthening of Iran to bring it to the same level as Israel, a nuclear power.

But the signs are currently pointing to stormy weather ahead: to Haqqani versus Anti-Amalek, and to a showdown between the unlike twins.

via euro-med.dk

Egypt: Who Disabled Facebook's "We Are All Khaled Said" Page?

As Presidential elections approach, tension is rising in Egypt. On Thursday, authorities arrested 156 protesters over Wednesday's  clashes between Christians and police, sparked by the government's refusal of a permit to build a church. Those arrested have been accused of planning to kill policemen, and the public prosecutor has ordered their detention for two weeks.
One sign of the concern is the apparent decision to block the Facebook page "We Are All Khaled Said". In June, Said was allegedly beaten to death in Alexandria by two policemen after he refused to give them money.
The case has sparked widespread, continuing protests, and the page gathered more than 3000 followers.
So, with more restrictions on information likely as the vote draws near, is Facebook --- which is a leading social media site in Egypt --- collaborating with the authorities?

via enduringamerica.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Afghanistan As A Safe Haven For Children

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010 rferl.org

How can a country that has gone through three decades of war and suffers rampant poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, and a booming illegal drug trade be a safe heaven for children? NATO’s top civilian in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, set off a firestorm this week when he said Afghan "children are probably safer in Kabul than they would be in London, or New York, or Glasgow, or many other cities.” Ambassador Sedwill’s comments came as Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) released its latest report (in Pashto) on conditions for children in the country. Based on a survey targeting 2,400 children throughout the country, the commission’s findings are enough to make one cringe. Researchers found a 20 percent increase in cases of sexual abuse against children in the first half of 2010. 13 percent of respondents had no access whatsoever to education and at least 30 percent do not have even cursory access to healthcare facilities. In addition, earlier this year, Afghanistan’s Ministry for Counter Narcotics reported that at least 60,000 Afghan youth suffer from some form of drug addiction.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Whoopi's Post Modern Argument for Islam

O'Reilly tells Whoopi that, actually, Jews are about ten times more likely to be victims of hate crimes than Muslims.

(these 2009 stats; from a conglomerate of 14,222 federal agencies, as reported to the FBI)

Whoopi then answers -

"Well, some folks may believe that, but I believe...."

via bokertov.typepad.com

photographic portrait by Annie Liebovitz,

Religious bias

Of the 1,575 victims of an anti-religious hate crime:

• 71.9 percent were victims because of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
  
• 8.4 percent were victims because of an anti-Islamic bias.
• 3.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Catholic bias.
• 2.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Protestant bias.
• 0.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
  
• 8.3 percent were victims because of a bias against other religions
  (anti-other religion).
• 4.3 percent were victims because of a bias against groups of individuals
  of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group). (Based on Table
  1.)

via www2.fbi.gov

Here's what's interesting.

Which mass media outlets will report how much the numbers differ from the perceptions that many of them have worked so hard to promote?

How many mainstream publications will carefully avoid pointing out who the real main victims of hate crimes are in today's America? Note how many mass media outlets cover this story while avoiding the facts laid out above.

Is anyone going to do some soul-searching or change their behavior regarding the bashing of Jews and Israel, especially on campuses?

Will people in academia, media, and government sing the praises of America as a remarkably tolerant society when it comes to religion?

UPDATE: I am told that the CNN coverage explained none of the above points, focused on hate crimes against homosexuals, and blamed an upsurge in "fundamentalist" Christianity for these attacks.

[Note: African-Americans are roughly four to six times more numerous in the American population but suffer only a bit more than twice as many hate crimes.]

via rubinreports.blogspot.com